ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict volleyball team had the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on the ropes Wednesday night, but the Blugolds refused to fall.
 
With a 2-1 match lead and a 21-13 lead late in the fourth set, Saint Benedict looked like it was going to put the Blugolds away and head home for the night with a win in Claire Lynch. But UWEC stormed back to tie and then win the set, and later win the fifth and final set to pull away for a 3-2 win.
 
CSB is now 3-2 overall, while Eau Claire improved stayed perfect at 5-0. The Blugolds won 25-16, 18-25, 17-25, 25-22 and 15-12.
 
Early in the first set, it looked like it would be the Blugolds running away with the match. After going back and forth for a handful of points, Eau Claire went on a 12-1 run to go up 19-9. CSB went on a run of its own to cut the gap to seven, 20-13, but the Blugolds held on for the win.
 
The second set was all CSB, however. With Katie Koch serving, Saint Benedict rattled off four straight points thanks to kills from Hunter Weiss and Madison Weiss and a big block from the Weiss twins. Kills from Hunter, Lauren Mathews and Liz Schultz made it 8-2 before UWEC finally found a rhythm and started to close the gap. But another big block from the Weiss twins later in the match sparked a short rally that pushed the lead to 23-15, and a kill from Hunter Weiss and a Blugold attack error ended the set.
 
The third set was closer to start, but a pair of kills by Schultz and later a service aces from Schultz put CSB up 13-8, and later a pair of kills from Hunter Weiss made it 18-11 en route to CSB's win to go up 2-1.
 
Saint Benedict led 21-13 late in the fourth set before UWEC went on its run and tied the set at 21-21. A kill put CSB up 22-21, but UWEC wrapped up scoring to tie the match at 2-2.
 
CSB led 5-3 early thanks to a pair of kills from Hunter Weiss, but the Blugolds went on a 5-0 run to make it 8-5 midway through the final set. Saint Benedict tied the match at 10-10 thanks to kills from Claire Westby and Madison Weiss, and another kill from Madison later made it 12-12, but the Blugolds scored three straight points to end the match.
 
Hunter Weiss led the team with 20 kills and she also had four block assists. Madison Weiss added 13 kills and seven block assists, and Westby finished with nine kills. Koch recorded 43 assists, and Schultz led the team with 22 digs. Haley LaValle added 20 digs and Bridget McDonald and Mary Wenisch both finished with 14.
 
Kendra Baierl led all hitters with 21 kills for UWEC, which had four players with double-digit kills. Madison Surprise had 55 assists and Makenzie Bachmann had 26 digs.
 
CSB returns to action with four home matches this weekend as part of its home tournament. CSB takes on Valley City State at 3 p.m. Friday and Simpson at 7, then hosts Concordia at 1 p.m. Saturday and St. Scholastica at 5 p.m.